“A Taste of Armageddon” Remastered Screenshots

Summary: Want to play a game Jim?This weekend’s TOS-R episode, "A Taste of Armageddon", is a classic cautionary Cold War tale about a society forgetting the horrors of war. Of course while Kirk takes it upon himself to change an entire culture, not even the Federation Ambassador mentions the Prime Directive. Then again Ambassador Fox himself was there as a futuristic Commodore Perry who was determined to open up the sector for the Federation whether they wanted it or not. The episode is also one of those where James Doohan’s Scotty gets to shine and deliver some of his best lines of the series, such as "Diplomats! The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank!"

CBS Digital actually had something to work with this week. There were quite a few establishing shots and they mixed it up quite a bit with some real beauty shots of the big E, including a rare nicely subtle shot from far behind the ship. And CBS-D’s Max Gable again knocked it out of the park with a beautiful new matte painting that seamlessly worked with the 40 year old live action footage.

NOTE: Remastered video and images below taken from the Standard Definition DVD side of the new Star Trek Season One box set.

Ok, is it just me, or did some of the exterior shots look REALLY dark? But for the work that was done, it was good. I liked this earthlike planet. It’s been awhile I think since we’ve seen one, though I could be wrong. The new matte was really good; just about as good as anything seen in TNG era shows, or ENT.

I haven’t seen the original one of this episode in a long time, but I’m just asking the forum this: did anyone find the the switches/cut-ins from the crew in front of the matte to the live-action shots to be awkward, and vice-versa? If so, was it that way in the original? Or is my mind just incorrectly perceiving this?

I do wish they could have added disruptor beams, and a possible exterior shot of the Enterprise getting attacked.

Once again, is it just me, or did Spock hit the ambassador’s assistant and take that disruptor?

One thing I’m curious about in the new movie is, will they use the TNG and later going-to-warp effect — i.e. some part of nacelles lights up, ship shoots to a vanishing point, leaving behind a faint blue afterglow? This effect was used in the prequel series Enterprise, so I think it’s likely to feature in the movie, and yet every instance of the Constitution class Enterprise to date, including the refit version in the first 6 movies, has always been shown with the older streaking/light smearing effect with a “whoosh” sound and no blue afterglow.

I like this episode. Ambassador Fox and his “assistant”–nice outfits by the way–were pains. I couldn’t stand him. I wanted Scotty to blast the cities with photon torpedos, but Fox stopped him, that bastard.
When I saw this as a kid, I thought he ( Fox) was Dr. McCoy’s brother.

I like the joke captions, they’re creative and funny. I really enjoy this site and the episode wrap ups–even if I am sick to death of Quintosaurus.I miss the reviews of the episodes . You did a great job on those.

#6 They are not going to do the now “traditional” warp streak. It’s not staying with the “basic original concept” of the SFX shot.
I also remember seeing a interview with Matt Jefferies on one of the movie sets that he tried to get a “play of power” coming out of the nacelles but was voted down every time.

As for what they are going to do in the new movie, well, we’ll just have to be patient now.

They did a beautiful job on this episode. I, for one, am glad there are no handheld disruptor beams here since I’ve always interpreted this episode as using sonic disruptors rather than phase disruptors. The front of Eminiar’s guns could be some very rapidly vibrating plates to create the sonic disturbance.

What I did miss was seeing heat beams striking the Enterprise shields, which I think would have heightened the tension.

The Enterprise and the planet shots looked simply gorgeous in this episode. Overall, a really good episode. I wonder what would have happened if Kirk’s plan had backfired, and the Enterprise had to leave orbit from a completely nuked planet. Maybe Shatner could have said to Spock, “Oh well. You can’t win ’em all. But at least we got rid of those damned disintergration chambers.”

They have some subtle effects in the opening shot. In deep space, away from a solar system, it would be darker than in orbit about a planet. But the actual star cluster was on the Enterprises approach. This is the one thing I like about the remastered SFX. They often mention things in voice over or on camera, but could never s how it.

I am going through Trek remastered withdrawals. Since I got the HDDVD set I have seen the last 5 weeks episodes already. The next remastered Ep that is not a re-run is Day of the Dove in Early January. The next two weeks are re-runs. Oh well, there is still A LOT of great episodes coming in the next couple months. I can’t wait for: Ultimate Computer, Obsession, By any other Name and The Enterprise Incicdent among others.

This is one of those episodes where I think Shatner was really at his COOLEST. I love the way Kirk talks to the Ambassador at the beginning, and his early confusion over the war games. And later his showdown with Anan in his quarters, and the way he keeps playfully hinting at the destruction he’s about to unleash.

And then of course there’s that little moment when he motions Anan over to the door with his finger. Cracks me up every time. :D